


secrets spilled in the darkest hours

by ellipsesarefun



Series: rip out my chest to bleed my demons away [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BOM! Keith, Canon-Based AU, Light Angst, M/M, emperor! Lotor, sharing feelings lol, what is tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 15:16:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14696838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellipsesarefun/pseuds/ellipsesarefun
Summary: Keith takes a break from his rounds and gets an unexpected greeting from the Emperor himself.





	secrets spilled in the darkest hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [icarusinflight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarusinflight/gifts).



> FIRST KEITOR FIC TO EVER BE KNOWN
> 
> And gifted to the one and amazing icarusinflight/candybarnerd (LOVE YOUR FICS BY THE WAY <3 <3 <3)  
> I really hope you enjoy this fic. Please go easy on me, this is my first time...

Keith barely goes to any parties. Ever. And if he did, all he'd ever done so far was attempt small talk and sway around the dance floor to look as though he wasn't a zombie who couldn't laugh at a joke. That's how he feels about them. Unbearably exhausting. He's most comfortable with a few of his friends from other planets (or who came from the same planet as he but work in other planets). Crowds? In a formal party hosted by none other Emperor Lotor of the Galran Empire and Empress Allura of the Altean Empire? Not entirely.

Most of them he humors are ambassadors of planets that have been long-standing allies of both the Altean Empire and the Galran Empire, who aim to promote and instill peace across star quadrants. As far as he is aware of, the Blades of Marmora have never been invited to such events as these, more so due to their Galran race and less of what they do. However, they have been stifled with endless surmount of covert operations and not one of them sought to take a vacation from all this. At least for Keith, as he has only been with the organization for only two years.

Here, however, as he stands behind the thrown of allies, it's the first time he himself has relaxed in awhile. It's not a vacation, per say, since he and a couple of them are assigned to stand guard around the perimeters inside and outside of the castle, but out of all the missions, this has to be the most laxed one he has ever taken.

A servant approaches randomly with a tray of beverages and Keith politely takes the baby blue one before slinking away from the crowd to an empty hallway. He saunters along, drowning out the noise as much as possible, until he finds a balcony to lean on the edge and breath out a long sigh. He knows they won't run out of people to watch over the hallways and besides, he's done his rounds for a couple of hours with the mandatory obligation in small talks with the guests and Allura's advisors. They aren't here just for the mission, but they were invited personally by Emperor Lotor and Empress Allura. And that also means, he also can take a small break. Away from guard duty, away from the crowds, and just here in this empty balcony.

 

"I'm not one for the crowds either." Someone spoke from behind and Keith immediately slips out his dagger and twirls around only to stop midway when a pair of yellow diamond eyes and suave smile glimmer at him. An odd sense of familiarity clicked in his memory but he couldn't quite place it. For a moment Keith freezes from the cold air and the anticipation for a fight until he recognizes the person in front and offers the mandatory obeisance.

"Commander Lotor," He greets, albeit still alarmed that he was unable to detect his presence a tick ago, "I'm sorry to bother your presence. I shall take my leave." He starts but his Majesty raises a hand and Keith stills.

"It is alright." The prince assures as he saunters over to the edge a few paces away from Keith was standing, "I do apologize for startling you, however. We could share this balcony, if you'd like?" Keith acquiesces back to his place but keeps his tight grip on his dagger. He averts away from the Commander and tries to calm his breath and, at the same time, increases his alertness at the hallway behind him. He hears a sigh.

"Relax. You're on break." Commander Lotor says, voice calm and alluring, "Besides, you've been making rounds for quite some time now." Keith tilts his head a bit to the side and sees from his periphery that the Commander is smiling. He looks away. The Commander? Smiling? At him? He has no idea what to fathom out of this. How many people have brought a smile to his face.

He shakes out the thought and focuses on the night-ridden landscape instead. Shuffling was heard from his right and suddenly he feels the Commander's presence a couple of inches from him. Keith brushes it off and lets his gaze wander at the evening-palette sky and the twinkling dots of the villagers below. It seems as though this peaceful night will not be as rare as it had been when Zarkon was alive. He doesn't dilly-dally on hypothetical situations but sometimes.. he wonders what it would've been if Zarkon were still here... breathing and pillaging terror across the entire star quadrants... 

 

"Is that your ceremonial sword?" He whips his gaze at the Commander, his tight grip on the handle reaffirmed. The Commander may have aided Princess Allura and the Paladins in saving the universe, but not once has Keith ever thought of engaging a casual conversation with Lotor himself, let alone a topic that concerns not only about his mission, but also his own heritage. Not many are aware that the Blades of Marmora have been hiding even the days before Zarkon's reign of tyranny. Some prefer to keep it clandestine because records of their past are, to say the least, not pretty. 

"Yes..." Keith answers after a moment of pondering. He shifts away from the Commander, while the other smiles.

"It must have been a challenging trials." Empire Lotor prompts, leaning his face forward and Keith shifts some more. Has the Commander been like this? He has been gossiped about for being quite the charmer amongst the upper ranks. To earn some brownie points, the people would say. He supposes that if he were Lotor himself and living under his father's terror was difficult enough, to device a rebellion against him and his cronies while playing the innocent and unreliable prince is already burdening task. 

Here, though, with nothing else against him, Keith wonders if this is the most relaxed the Commander has been since he met him. 

"Isn't any battle always challenging?" He mutters, while idly fiddling with his dagger, "They let us drag on to the very last breath until we find ourselves facing our own inner fears and we're presented with a choice to make in the end." He twirls the dagger upwards.

"That was how initiations went." He catches the dagger by the hilt, where the reflection of his somber face came to view. "I never knew how everyone else's is, but mine had been... bizarre. I knew little of where I came from and somehow that initiation gave me insight of who I was.. even if it's from my own subconscious."

Keith careened his head towards the Commander, who had his head on his palm with a gaze so open and inquisitive. There's barely a wisp of a smile there but after a blink, it disappeared and his bright eyes is back to the nightlife scenery before them. Keith watches the quiet sigh escaping those moist lavender lips, fixated on the tongue languidly lapping on the lower lip. 

 

He averts his gaze, clutching to his dagger towards him. 

"I have known for so long that I would be ruler of the Galra Empire." Emperor Lotor speaks, a tinge of vulnerability in his silk-like voice, "Not like this. Not ever like this. There's one side of myself that I've been familiar all my life and there's the other that I've been trying to grasp in ancient texts and relics." There had been some experiment. A rather dangerous one, according to Kolivan on one evening after a sparring match, conducted by none other than Honerva, an Altean and wife of Zarkon in the days before.. before. It was an experiment that wiped out whatever was left in the Galra home planet, along with Emperor Lotor's parents.

They did survive, or came back from the dead as Kolivan speculated. Alive they were yet more sinister and terrifying as they come. When the two had awoken, a new era for the Galran Empire was born and thus the Zarkon's reign begun. Not a happy ending at all, he says in his mind as he turns to frown at Emperor Lotor's glazed eyes. 

"If I had the chance..." the Commander trails off and looks down on his hands as though the answers were there, "If there was a way to go back in time and.. I know I wasn't born at that time but.. I still wish..." His hands trembled and suddenly the Commander withdrew himself, clenching his hands to his chest. Keith veers his eyes back to his dagger, unable to witness a personal scene. 

The air between them was melancholic and tense. Everything that seemed to hold the Commander together came crumbling down, brick by brick, as soft sniffles and ragged breaths painted the silence. There was nothing else Keith could say that would ease the pain because such pain with this immense magnitude can never be comforted with words at all. 

"I'm sorry this is a little... I didn't mean for this conversation to end up this way..." Lotor apologizes but Keith stops him right there.

"You don't need to say sorry." He says at last, glancing at his Commander, "You have every right to feel that way..." He wordlessly watches Emperor Lotor lower his hands on the edge of the platform with his head tilted to where Keith was standing. He can catch the glisten in his yellow eyes. 

"Things like these can bring a heavy weight.." Keith continues, leaning towards Emperor Lotor. His hand itches to reach out but he restrains himself as he says, "Maybe it's time you release them..."

Gradually, the air between them shifted. Lighter, cathartic. The weight between them lifted from their chests and he suddenly finds himself locked into those dazed violet irises, awashed from all the burdens they've had for the past months. 

They both looked away and then the moment was over, left with awkwardness and uncertainty. He hears Emperor Lotor clear his throat and Keith throws a cautious glance again.

"There's a hall for ancient Galran rulers, relics, and texts." Emperor Lotor's suggestion broke through the quiet. Keith blinks. "If you'd like, I could show you..?" Shakily, he offers his palm to the soldier.

Keith takes it with a firm grip. They both stand and start towards the hall to the right, unwilling to let go. It seems that he may not be able to return to the main hall with the rest of them promptly, but an actual tour of another hall with the actual Emperor Lotor himself is not a bad idea at all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Something about this AU (at least stuff I wanted to add):  
> 1\. Keith met them in the Garrison but the five paladins are scattered to different planets/organizations. Keith works with the Blade of Marmora, Pidge works with the Olkarians, Hunk with the Balmerans, and Lance with Allura and the surviving Alteans.  
> 2\. Lotor is associated with the Blades of the Marmora this whole time and is deemed as Commander among the BOMs. 
> 
> And that's it! I've got a pinch hit for this exchange to finish so uh yea.. stay tuned for that I guess... This fic will also be crossposted on tumblr a little later, but scream @ellipsesarefun over there or on twitter if you wanna scream Keitor with me <3
> 
> (because I've got a Keitor text message fic coming up and I have no idea how to text fic plot things lol)


End file.
